Ambition, Talent and Emergence Programmes

CY Initiative of Excellence is supporting 21 research projects for a total amount of EUR 3.2 million under the 2020 call for scientific projects aimed at financially supporting proposals that contribute to the development of scientific excellence and increase international attractiveness and visibility.

The researchers and laboratories of CY Initiative, composed of CY Cergy Paris University and ESSEC Business School, submitted 49 projects in October 2019. This fourth call for projects, launched in favour of the development of research, aims to increase the means of an ambitious scientific strategy to increase their attractiveness and impact through four programmes: Ambition, Talent, Emergence and International PhD. This funding decision concerns the first three programmes. The results of the International Doctorate programme will be published at the end of May 2020.

Following the advice of the evaluation committee of the call for proposals, the Executive Board of CY Initiative decided, on May 4, 2020, to financially support 21 research projects (7 Ambition projects, 3 Talent projects and 11 Emergence projects) for a total amount of 3.2 million euros.

Two new funding programs: Ambition and Talent

The Ambition program aims to support, for a period of 4 years, ambitious research programs carried out by a CY Initiative research team and which will have a significant leverage effect on the scientific dynamics, impact and visibility of the carrier team.

The Talent program supports the recruitment of high potential young researchers wishing to develop their research in one of the CY Initiative research teams. It offers an attractive remuneration and working environment for a period of 3 years to researchers with between 2 and 10 years of postdoctoral experience.

Set up in 2018, the Emergence program accompanies the development of promising research projects in order to enable the advancement of research work, with a view to preparing a request for external financial support at the national or European level.

The supported projects will also contribute to the development of international scientific collaborations with privileged partners of CY Initiative (notably in Europe with EUTOPIA European University and in Singapore with Nanyang Technological University). The International PhD programme will make a particular contribution to this objective.

The evaluation process

All of the projects supported were subjected to an evaluation involving more than 70 external experts. Each project was evaluated in two stages:

– individual expertise of the projects by two experts,

– evaluation of all projects and cross-ranking by the evaluation committee.

The evaluation committee, chaired by Arnaud Lefranc as coordinator of the call for projects, is composed of 5 members internal to CY Initiative and 7 external members.

CY Initiative of excellence

Since 1 January 2020, the excellence initiative has been renamed CY Initiative and brings together CY Cergy Paris University and ESSEC Business School.

In February 2017, CY Initiative was a winner of the I-Site excellence initiatives (Initiatives Science, Innovation, Territories, Economy) of the Programme Investissement d’Avenir (PIA 2).

With 10 million euros per year, it is producing a leverage effect to increase overall resources and the attractiveness of the Paris Region and the world. Its main focus is on meeting the global challenges of a world undergoing rapid change, particularly as a result of scientific and technological developments, with a radically international approach, at the heart of a first-class campus in terms of quality of life.

CY Initiative systematically bases its implementation on two levers: excellence in research and economic development.

List of projects supported following the Initiative of Excellence 2020 call for projects

Talent Programme

THIEBAUT Cyrille (AGORA – Political Science) – The role of the media in the normalization of Euroscepticism: A Comparative Framing Analysis of the European Union in the Media and its influence on Public Opinion in France, Germany and the UK (1989-2019)